Chapter 396 The Odd Coffin
The moon was completely blocked by the dark clouds and the main hall of the coffin house appeared as ghastly as the temple of the king of hell.
Qiu Yu ducked his head instinctively, despite him not being superstitious about the existence of spirits. He could not help but feel crept out in his heart just by standing there.
What made him speechless was the fact that Lin Mengya, who was supposed to be a frail lady, did not have any reactions of fear.
Was it possible that this lass was completely unafraid?
“Are you carrying anything that can lit up the place?”
Suddenly, Lin Mengya patted Qiu Yu on his back and could immediately feel the tensed up muscles on his back.
Was he overreacting? Speechless, Lin Mengya gazed at the aggrieved look in Qiu Yu’s eyes.
“Yes, just hang on a moment. Also, do not pat me for no reason. You almost scared me to death!”
Obviously, Qiu Yu was nervous to the extent that he could not control himself, so much so there was a quiver in his voice.
He searched for something which acted as a lighter and lit a small fire that quickly brightened up in the darkness.
Lin Mengya looked at the jittery Qiu Yu quietly and was puzzled by how he could be so intimidated by an abandoned mortuary.
If she were to dump him at the modern-day school of medicine and let the teachers take turns torturing him, would he be so freaked out that he went crazy?
“Alright, alright, if you’re indeed very frightened, you can hold on to my arm.”
Lin Mengya offered her arm generously so that Qiu Yu could hold on tightly to it.
Lin Mengya took over the lighter and inched towards the backyard, feeling her way around.
The main hall was in a mess, but apparently, there were a number of beds there meant for dead bodies. There were some memorial tablets lying at one corner of the wall.
From the look of it, no one had visited this place for a long time.
They supposed that the entrance to the basement was in the back hall, so Lin Mengya and Qiu Yu walked into it cautiously. Compared to the chaotic front hall, the backyard was not filled with bits and pieces of stuff.
There were only some bales at the corner of the walls.
“It seems that there’s nothing in this back hall. Let’s get out of here.”
Despite having the light illuminating the place, Qiu Yu still could not get rid of the chills the place was giving him.
This was ridiculous. He was never afraid of anything except ghosts and darkness.
If his elder brother learned about how fearful Qiu Yu was, he would be mocking him.
Lin Mengya pointed at the bales at the corner of the walls and said, “Please move those bales somewhere else.”
Qiu Yu opened his eyes wide and gave Lin Mengya a pleading look as if he were asking her to let him off.
Unfortunately, Lin Mengya retracted her hand reluctantly, indicating to Qiu Yu that if he refused, she would do it herself.
Being put under pressure, Qiu Yu reluctantly went over to move the bales away.
However, never would he expect to find an iron door behind those bales.
The black door handle stood out from the entire setting of the coffin home.
He reached out and turned the handle and it moved. In addition, there was no rust on it, so it showed that it ought to be used quite often.
“Eh? How come there’s a secret door over here? How did you know about it?”
Lin Mengya hurried over and took a careful look at the door. After making sure that there was no poisonous substance on the door handle, she indicated for Qiu Yu to open the iron door.
“Think about it, if nobody uses this place over a long time, why would people place these bales over here? Moreover, the hay was clean and dry. Could it be the ghosts that moved them here?”
She could not help but roll her eyes at Qiu Yu. She could see that Qiu Yu’s intelligence dropped drastically the moment they arrived at this coffin home.
Qiu Yu shivered at the mention of the word ‘ghosts’.
Holding to Lin Mengya’s arm, the two retreated a few steps.
“Ah, what are you trying to do?! Why are you so scared!?”
Lin Mengya almost wanted to give up on this big brother. From all his dawdling, Qiu Yu was obviously timider than her, a lady.
“We shouldn’t open it. Perhaps this is the gate to hell. Have you not heard the stories from the adults in the family, that there is a gate to hell behind the statue of the king of hell? If you open it, those demons and monsters will come out from this small door! Hey! Hey! You shouldn’t open it!”
Lin Mengya could not be bothered about him and reached out to forcefully open the little iron door.
Eventually, nothing happened.
Instantly, Lin Mengya was glued to where she was standing.
The atmosphere turned all strange. One could even hear the sound of Qiu Yu swallowing his saliva.
“Princess? Miss Lin? Mengya?”
Qiu Yu addressed Lin Mengya in three different ways, but she remained squatting at that place and did not react.
Qiu Yu’s legs turned into jelly as he inched towards Lin Mengya. He reached out his trembling hands as he patted her on her shoulder.
Then he immediately retracted his hand and looked warily at Lin Mengya’s back.
“How rude of you, gentleman. How could you touch me, a slave girl’s body as and when you like?”
A long and high-pitched voice came forth from Lin Mengya’s body and it sounded like a long note sung by an opera singing. In that instant, all the hairs on Qiu Yu’s body stood.
“You, you… Who are you? Are you a human or a ghost? Let me tell you that this woman was not easy to deal with. If you possess her, you would be scared out of your wits!”
Qiu Yu, who was trying very hard to stay calm, was now unable to control even his mouth.
Lin Mengya, who was squatting down, got up slowly and started to laugh with a cawing sound of a crow.
“Caw, caw, caw, caw, I’ve been waiting for so many years and finally a strong man appears in front of me! Look at who I am?”
Lin Mengya turned back so suddenly that Qiu Yu got a shock and shut his eyes. He was so fearful that he could not even scream out.
“Amitabha! Buddha preserve me! Listen to me! My flesh is not palatable, only my elder brother’s flesh is delicious. You may have him as your meal…”
Qiu Yu, who had been frightened to death had started to blabber nonsense. Suddenly, he heard the lady in front of him burst out into laughter.
He opened his eyes carefully and saw that Lin Mengya was smiling brilliantly.
Lin Mengya laughed till she bent backward, while she pointed at Qiu Yu who was obviously in a guarded state. She held on to her belly and almost rolled on the ground. It was only then that Qiu Yu realized what happening.
How on earth did he get tricked by Lin Mengya?!
“Did you realize how funny you looked just now?”
Lin Mengya did not mean to scare him initially. However, she found him to be too much of a scaredy-cat.
Qiu Yu could feel his blood shooting up to his head. He gnashed his teeth as he stared at the lass before his eyes. He almost wanted to charge at her and strangle her.
“Alright, alright, you’ve seen it for yourself that this is not the gate to hell. Moreover, you and I are physicians who are saviors to mankind. Even if we were to go to hell, we wouldn’t be punished for doing so many good deeds. Look at you! Are you even a man? You’re not even comparable to a little woman like me. Alright, let’s get down there to have a look.”
After mocking Qiu Yu, she thought she had to say a few words of comfort to him.
Everyone would have some kind of phobia, but it was necessary for one to confront it face to face in order to become bolder and stronger.
After the scare, Qiu Yu seemed to be much bolder than before. Perhaps he was trying to regain his pride.
He even volunteered to enter through the secret door ahead of Lin Mengya.
The door was slightly over half a body length and they had to bend at their waist to get through the opening. However, after taking a few more steps forward, the stairs gradually got wider.
After descending forty to fifty steps, they arrived at the basement of the coffin home.
The area of the basement was the same as that of the main hall, but it did not feel stuffy at all. There was good ventilation and surprisingly, the place did not smell of dampness or molds at the slightest.
“Looks like we guessed correctly. They must have rested here. Look, there are some daily necessities which they left behind. Moreover, the drinking water which they left behind is clear, which means it had been left here for only a few days.”
Once Qiu Yu saw the marks left behind by the people, his spirit was revived.
He had recovered and was back to his usual self likely because he had confirmed that the place was not hell after all.
Lin Mengya scanned the surroundings and realized that the basement was rather spacious, and it could accommodate four to five coffins.
The ebony coffins stood out in the basement and caught their attention.
Lin Mengya felt something amiss. Before she entered the basement, the radar had also pinpointed the basement as the location of the poisonous medicine. Could White Dragon and Black Tiger have killed the people and hidden the dead bodies in the coffin?
She refused to believe that these men who did human trafficking would be kind enough to keep the dead bodies properly.
“Big Brother Qiu, come over here. I find this coffin rather fishy. Can you help me push the cover away?”
This time, Qiu Yu did not say no to her request.
They were physicians after all. They often come into contact with dead bodies anyway.
Contrary to what happened a moment ago, when Qiu Yu was frightened by his imagination of spirits, he was no longer afraid.
They finally removed the cover of the coffin closest to them after making a lot of noise pushing the cover off. Lin Mengya brought the lighter closer and lit up the inside of the coffin.
“This is so strange. If these two supposedly dead people appear to be too ruddy looking on their faces.”
Qiu Yu muttered under his breath, but Lin Mengya thought likewise.
There were two men lying in the coffin. Lin Mengya reached out her hand to feel their breath. She realized that they were indeed still breathing, although they were breathing very slowly and weakly.
Could these two people be alive?
Lin Mengya and Qiu Yu exchanged looks, then Qiu Yu caught hold of the hand of one of the men and started listening to his pulse.
Very quickly, Qiu Yu began to frown.
Then in a flash, he reached the hand of the other man and indeed, there was a pulse too.
“What do you think?”
Lin Mengya gazed at Qiu Yu and saw the strange expression on his face.
“Their pulses show that they are asleep!”
Asleep? Lin Mengya held on to the wrist of one of the man and indeed, his pulse was steady. It did not seem like there was anything abnormal. This was not possible! If they had merely fallen asleep, how could they stay so quiet?
Moreover, even if they were asleep, they would wake up some time. If they woke up and discovered that they were being put into a coffin, wouldn’t any normal person be frightened to death?